Bunny Bonding
by The Werewolf Mage
Summary: More Sirius and his bunny, Sirius Junior. Includes a bath and some paper eating.


Title: Bunny Bonding

Summary: More Sirius and his bunny, Sirius Junior. Includes a bath and some paper eating.

As he watched Sirius Junior hop along the living room floor, Sirius realized that maybe not allowing Gen to set the rabbit free was a bad idea. For Sirius Junior was at least twice the size he had been when Gen went to let him go.

And he enjoyed chewing on most anything he could get his teeth into.

But Sirius would never allow Gen the satisfaction of knowing she was right. Besides, the rabbit was just too cute to let go.

Even if he did chew on some very important papers. And the crossword whenever Sirius tried to finish it. And Sirius's toes if they got too close to the rabbit's mouth.

But he still loved his rabbit. Partly because it had been Gen's rabbit at first. And the rabbit also caused Gen to drop by his loft much more than she used to. Which was a very big plus in Sirius's book.

"Yes, you're going to be just like me, aren't you?" Sirius asked the rabbit one night, rubbing under its chin with his foot as he passed it. "A ladies man. Erm, if you are a man, that is."

The rabbit made a happy rabbit-y noise and hopped after Sirius, looking up at him expectantly.

"Are you hungry for more paper?" Sirius asked with a sigh. He reached over and randomly tore out a page of one of the older editions of _The Daily Prophet _that he had not bothered to throw out and dropped on the floor, where the rabbit immediately pounced on it.

A high squeal of terror followed as Sirius Junior began to gnaw at the moving picture on the page.

"Is it good?" Sirius asked the rabbit. He grinned and answered his own question: "It probably is. Of course, the only time I ate paper was when I ate Peter's homework, and I have no idea how newsprint tastes. And I'm not really sure I want to know."

"And that would be Gen." Sirius muttered to himself, hearing a faint knock at the door. "I love you, bunny." he muttered to Sirius Junior, pausing only for a second to stroke the rabbit's fur once, then raced to the door.

And he was right. "How's my bunny?" Gen demanded, without even as much as a 'hello' in Sirius's direction.

"You mean my bunny, right?" Sirius asked, leading her into the kitchen, where Sirius Junior was enjoying his tasty snack of newsprint.

"No," Gen said, looking disgusted as Sirius casually placed an arm around her waist. "I mean my bunny. You're just... ah, babysitting. Long term." She bent to pick up Sirius Junior, who wasn't too happy with her interrupting his snack. "Look at him! How much have you been feeding him? He's so fat!" Without waiting for an answer, she carried the rabbit into the living room and sat down on the couch, rubbing its stomach, where it immediately forgot being mad at her for interrupting his snack in the first place.

"He eats too much paper." Sirius said, sitting next to her. "Is it my fault he thinks he needs to eat the entire newspaper before I finish it?"

"You could take it away from him!" Gen said with a glare in his direction. "I don't think it's good for him to eat paper! Some father-figure you are."

Sirius chose to ignore that last bit. "Hey, he's not dead yet." he pointed out.

"Oh, that's nice, Sirius." Gen said coldly. "I think he needs to come back home with me." Turning to the rabbit, she asked, "Yes, wouldn't you rather come home with me, hmm?"

"You were going to let him go!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Well, thanks to you, he's become too used to people, so now I can't." Gen scowled. Her expression softened as she starting to stroke between Sirius Junior's ears. "But Frank would eat you, so I guess you're stuck with this git."

Smiling triumphantly, Sirius took the rabbit from Gen and told it, "Looks like you're rooming with me. What say we give you a bath and then you can sleep in my bed?"

"Sirius Black, I never thought I would ever see anything like this from you." Gen said in astonishment. "It's actually kind of cute."

Sirius grinned and asked, "So, does that mean -- ?"

"No." Gen answered shortly. "But you can keep the bunny." She glanced at the clock and added, "I need to go. I'll see you two later." She gave the rabbit one final scratch between the ears and, to Sirius, she added, "Make sure you wash between his ears."

"Yes, Gwennie." Sirius laughed, showing her to the door.

After she left, Sirius gave Sirius Junior a nice warm bath. Which Sirius Junior was not too fond of, especially when he accidentally swallowed some bubbles. But he did enjoy being towel-dried, even though his fur stuck out at odd angles.

But the best bit was when Sirius deposited him on his bed. He hopped around once, then once more, and snuggled up close to Sirius's pillow before drifting off to sleep.


End file.
